Filament Book Clublog

The Black Ghost

The Black Ghost

            I recently got in trouble with a comic book reviewer that read one of my Black Ghost stories in an anthology. Basically, he said my character didn’t deserve the cape he wore since he couldn’t fly or leap over tall buildings. My response was that my character is not a comic book super hero, but a pulp crime fighter that wears a costume. Now, I admit there are a lot of similarities between comic book super heroes and pulp crime fighters, but there is a difference.

            After the financial Stock Market crash of ’29, the reading public was discouraged with the Roaring Twenties, and the popularization of the American gangster. They were looking for heroes, and the popular media of the day, the pulp magazines, gave them that change.

            In 1931, The Shadow hit the stands and was an instant success. In 1932, The Phantom Detective followed from another publishing house. By 1933, the market place was flooded with pulp heroes: The Spider, G-8, Doc Savage, and others. Most wore some weird costume, laughed eerily, or sported a domino mask. Most were copies of The Shadow. They were all a lot of fun.

            Walter Gibson, the man who gave us the character of The Shadow, drew from several sources in creating the character; turning New York City into a dark and forbidding locale like that of London in the period of Jack the Ripper, and then dressing our hero like the popular vampire of the movies, Dracula, black cape, hypnotic eyes, a sinister voice, et al. Gibson, himself a magician, put magic in his stories, both in atmosphere and in creativity. The character came alive. He appeared in 325 magazine novels, a 1960s updated paperback series, and two short stories, plus a long running radio drama, several movies, a number of comic book series, and a Saturday Matinee serial. He was extremely popular.

            When Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created their comic book super hero, Superman, they drew heavily from The Shadow & Doc Savage. Bob Kane and Bill Finger gave us the character of the Bat Man shortly after the appearance of Superman, and they also drew heavily from The Shadow. By the 1950s, the pulps were dying, being replaced by the comic book as the popular reading material of young adults, but the comic books had pulled heavily from the pulps. The main difference was the super abilities of the heroes. In the pulps, our heroes were tough, could swing a hard fist, was usually an expert in disguise, and carried heavy automatics with which to battle 1920s type gangsters on dark streets. The super heroes of the comics could jump over tall buildings, run faster than a speeding bullet, and even fly! Whereas the comic super heroes could not be real, the pulp crime fighters could be the guy/girl next door.

            I admit it, I was a fan of the comic books. In the mid 1940s, I was reading the Bat Man, Superman, and all the rest. But when I created the character of The Black Ghost, I drew from the pulps, especially the character of The Shadow. So the reviewer was correct, my character cannot jump tall buildings or fly, but he didn’t get his cape from the comic books. His cape came from much earlier, the pulp costumed crime fighter!

            For Filament readers that are not familiar with my Black Ghost stories, they take place in a modern city (never named), which could be anywhere. He fights crime with a pair of .45 automatics and a sinister laugh, while wearing all black to blend with the dark streets where crime dwells. His costume includes a black hood, which completely covers his head, and a black cape over his shoulder – not to fly, but more in keeping with Dracula of the movies. A martial arts expert, he often has to battle criminals who are also trained to kill with their hands. The stories are full of action, but I also work on plot and characterization, so that the stories are not just mindless action and gun battles. 

            One difference in my modern hero and those in the pulp era, the crime fighters of the 1930s and 1940s could never marry as long as they wore the mask of the hero. The Black Ghost, however, was married early in his career, recorded in a story entitled, “Hunter’s Moon”, and his wife has often donned the guise of the crime fighter to confuse the enemy.

            To-date, I have written nine adventures of The Black Ghost; Filament has five of them, with four already in print. If you like fast action, with a lot of gun battles along with a good mystery, I hope you will read the stories that Filament has made available to club members. I am always available for comment and discussion. Just don’t ask me why my character can’t fly!

Tom Johnson

Seymour, Texas

May 25, 2007

Hercules & The Moon Goddess

Essay:

            With the recent deaths of Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott my memory took me back to an earlier time when I was just beginning my adult life. During High School I had dreamed of becoming either a paleontologist or an entomologist, but there was no way I could attend college, so in 1958 I joined the Army after High School.

            In Early 1959, I had finished Army Basic (Company A, 2^nd Battle Group, 13^th Infantry, 9^th Infantry Division) at Fort Carson, Colorado, and MP School (Company G, PMGS) at Fort Gordon, Georgia, and was sent to Fort Hood, Texas to the 720^th MP BN (Company B) for my first duty station. I was 18 years old, tough, and thought I knew everything. Four other boys were assigned with me from Fort Gordon, all 17 and 18 years of age and straight from the farm, ranch, or a tough neighborhood street from some big city. There was D. Crist ("D" stood for either David or Don, I don't remember which), David Donnell, J.C. Fields, Patrick Hyland, and myself, and we were all close pals. The old Bob Dylan song, “Forever Young” comes to mind when I think of us back then. For we thought we had the world by the tail, and that we would stay young forever.

            I think we kind of grew up a little bit while at Fort Hood. I know that the Army turned us from boys into men. It was at Fort Hood that I tried pizza for the first time in my life, and hated it. Later on, I came to like pizza, but not the first time I tried it. It was also at Fort Hood that we saw Steve Reeves in Hercules at the post theater, and then a few of his other sand and sandal movies followed. Seeing those movies today, you laugh at their campy style, but back then they really influenced a bunch of young Army guys. It got us into the gym, where most of us got into judo and karate, while working out with weights. For me, it was something I stayed with the rest of my life. Judo and karate I stayed with until 1966, at which time I gave up the gym for good; it was demanding too much of my life. For a period from 1961 through early 1963, I was with the 4^th Army Judo & Karate team at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, training for the Olympics. But in 1963 I came down on orders for France, and gave up all hope of entering the Olympics, but I stayed with judo and karate training through 1966, when I returned to the States. After being separated from my wife while in France, I decided it was time to give up the gym for good. I bought a set of weights from Sears & Roebucks, and continued my weight program at home.

            In March of 2002, I had a stroke, and it ended my weight program, after about 43 years of training. I haven’t lifted weights since, and what muscles I did have, are now turning to fat, and I look back on my life and wonder why I did it in the first place? Of course, it was those campy Hercules movies we saw at Fort Hood, Texas!

            But we were young then, and tough, and were going to live forever. In writing this story for Filament Book Club, it brought back those memories from 1959, and my early Army days. I lost tract of Crist when we left Fort Hood, but Fields, Donnell, Hyland and I went to Korea together, but split up after that assignment, and I lost contact with the rest of my pals after Korea. But after retirement, I ran into Donnell and Hyland again. Donnell had retired in Texas, Hyland in Alaska. Donnell later died from heart problems ten years ago, and Hyland was killed in a car accident about the same time. Life seldom goes as planned, unless you work at it, and even then you can be blind-sided when you least expect it, so all you can do is your very best, and set your aims high. I heard that Crist later became a Chief of Police or Sheriff somewhere, and Fields ended up in Jackson, Mississippi.

            The story of Hercules was really a tragedy. Although he was strong, and courageous, he suffered throughout his life. Being a mortal, he was left to fend for himself, while his stepmother, Hera took out her vengeance on him, punishing him throughout his life. Only when Hercules laid himself on the funeral pyre and asked his friends to burn him alive (because of the terrible pain he was suffering), did the gods tell Hera that Hercules had suffered enough and she agreed, ending her anger, and Zeus sent Athena to bring him to heaven in her chariot, thus ending his saga on Earth.

            Regardless of what the skeptics want you to believe, myths are often based on some truth. The lands of Mu and Atlantis are examples. The Roman and Greek gods run parallel with stories in the Bible. In the Bible we are told, "The sons of God saw that the women of men were fair and mated with them, and there were great men of renown in those days." Hercules and Achilles were both the results of gods mating with mortal women. The story of Samson reads almost identical to the story of Hercules. Both had great strength, both in physical ability and in sexual prowess. And both were men of great renown. The gods in myth are often described as flying through the heavens in fiery chariots. Just read a UFO report today! The ancient civilizations connected the "fiery chariots" (UFOs) to the gods, and those "gods" were constantly interfering with the plans of man; guiding them with new technology (usually weapons), or punishing them for their iniquities.

When I wrote “Hercules And The Moon Goddess”, I tried to include elements from those old movies, as well as the mythology, along with the UFO phenomenon of today, and a touch of science fiction. There were short periods on Earth when Hercules enjoyed brief periods of love and peace, and it is one of those periods that I am bringing to you in this short epic that I hope you will pass on to your grandchildren, and they, theirs. For, unless they are told, the tales will never be heard by those who come after us.

            

Tom Johnson

Seymour, Texas

May 8, 2007